Well, the good news is that, so far, nothing in the tank has succumbed and the surviving knife fish is eating very well and has grown appreciably. I'm hand-feeding it with small bits of haddock and cod (nothing but the best but there doesn't seem to be much else available locally). I'm afraid I slip it a small piece of heart occasionally as that seems to be favourite. It no longer tries to bite the forceps. I'm also dropping frozen bloodworms into the tank last thing at night. They disappear but I've no idea if the knife fish gets any; the Corydorus are a force to be reckoned with.
On the subject of the possible fungal attack on the other knife fish: when the fish was quarantined and I could see it more clearly, a translucent white glob was occasionally visible protruding briefly from one gill opening. At first I thought it was a parasitic animal but it was passively moving with the respiratory flow and I spotted a small patch on the skin just behind the gill that looked identical. I removed that and put it under a microscope. It looked like a clot with fungal threads so I assumed the gills had a similar growth. I still have the frozen body, but I never did enjoy post-mortem examinations.
regards
Graham
--- In tropicalfishclub@yahoogroups.com, "Graham" <Graham.Compton@...> wrote:
>
> Hi All
>
> An Update: I'm afraid the answer so far is 50% success. The non-eating knife fish looked so poorly at the end of last week that I put it into a quarantine tank. It died Sunday night. There seemed to be a growth of fungal threads in the gill cavity, which I didn't spot until the end. The question is: was this the primary problem? If so, how infectious might it be? The other knife fish is eating everything I offer it - so far. Fingers crossed but any suggestions would be appreciated.
>
> regards
> Graham
>
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